In two days the moving company is coming to pack our things. In five days they will be loading the moving truck with those things and we’ll all be headed out to “Dream State.” It’s all happening. I’d like to take a moment today to reminisce on some of the (many) things I will miss when we are gone. I am looking forward to this new chapter in our lives but of course I have my reservations, and they are…

1. Friends & Built-In Playmates: As I type this MM is playing with one of his best friends, the three and a half year old son of one of my best friends. All of my close friends have children – and we all live in this area. That’s four friends of mine that provide MM with six friends – a long standing legacy of friendship that will be sorely missed. I think I’ll probably be putting MM in preschool this fall, despite having planned not to, now that his little net of social activity will be no longer available.
2. Game Night: Those great friends of mine and I have had a semi-long standing tradition of getting together about once a month. Even living as close as we do, having families means that we get busy and it’s not always easy to get together. I will miss those game nights a lot, miss the getting together with good friends. We like entertaining and love this little circle of families of friends that we have here – they will be sorely missed.
3. Free Anytime / Anywhere Babysitting: Yeah we are pretty much leaving the lap of luxury. With so many family members nearby, we’ve actually never had to pay for child care, never mind the process of finding and hiring a complete stranger to watch my children – yeah I’ve never done that. I’m sure I’ll be coming to you guys for tips and advice on that in the future.
4. Old, New England Nature: The roads here will built around cow paths, a lot of the nature has been here longer than the people. This makes for some pretty crazy driving conditions but also some beautiful landscapes. The nature here is strongly rooted – the trees are majestic. There will definitely be trees and water in Dream State but it’s much more cleanly maintained and probably man made and designed. I know I’ll come to love it, but it’s these old trees that feel like home to me. It will be interesting.
5. History and Heritage: My family is straight off the Mayflower. The history here is my history – it’s the story of my life and the lives of my family. There is history everywhere – stories of the ones who came before and while I look forward to learning these new histories I will miss this one, which is also my own history.
6. Family and Family Parties: They will be very different from now on – birthdays up until now have meant family and lots of it. Both of our families are in the area and sometimes a family event will be celebrated multiple times just to see everyone. Sure that can get a little tiring, but it’s also nice. I’ll miss seeing people on a regular basis, being able to keep up with everyone and watch the little ones grow.
7. My Library: I’m sure the one in Dream State will be wonderful but I’ve gotten used to mine and know my way around.
8. My First Apartment: While I’m growing weary of some of the less than wonderful things about this place, it was our first apartment. I’ll miss my tacky 70’s style kitchen and all the memories we’ve made here.
9. Our Extended Family Kitty Cats and Puppy Dogs: Our parents have pretty much the greatest pets ever. The assortment of puppies and kitties in our families are just so sweet, so cute. I love watching MM interact with them and I’m going to miss all the cute animal moments we have with them. I look forward to getting our first pet someday, but it’s nice to have these wonderful animals to spend time with without having the obligations of owning them full time.
10. My Favorite Potato Chips: Wachusett Sour Cream and Onion – they are made by a local company and they are the cheapest brand in the grocery store. They are my favorite and I will miss them terribly. Potato chips simply won’t be the same. Here’s hoping Dream State has some acceptable equivalent that won’t cost as much as the main brands.
11. My New Favorite Mexican Restaurant: It’s hardly fair that I finally found a wonderful Mexican place just months before moving away. Dream State had better have good Mexican food – also Italian food, Chinese Food and breakfast places – In short – I’d better not go hungry!
12. All Our Favorite Vacation Spots: They are all in New England. While I know we will be coming back to visit family, I don’t know how often we’ll be hitting up our regular vacation spots now. I know the first couple years in Dream State will make for easy vacations because there will be fun new things all around that we’ve never seen before – but New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in particular all have some wonderful places to travel to that I will definitely miss!
13. All The Things I Haven’t Thought Of Yet: But I know they are there. The little things that I’ll be too late to appreciate properly one last time, the things I’ll remember when we’re gone and miss horribly even when it’s silly. Again, I am totally looking forward to the new memories, the new things to fall in love with in our new “life” in “Dream State,” but I know more pregnant hormones are going to go into overdrive soon – and I will miss all these things mentioned and more a lot.

Thursday 13 is a pretty self explanatory meme – write thirteen things about something, anything, whatever is relevent and interesting to you in that moment. For more information and rules about the meme you can look here.